Washington, D.C.—Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued the following statement today on the Fiscal Responsibility Act:
“I supported this bill because nothing is more important than protecting Social Security, Medicare, and the health of our economy from Republican threats to default.
“Republicans manufactured this hostage-taking crisis from the beginning, but the president negotiated an agreement that looks virtually nothing like the ransom note Speaker McCarthy passed in the House in April. By doing so, the president protected the health and well-being of millions of Americans along with hundreds of thousands of jobs.
“In the end, the single biggest thing Republicans accomplished by threatening to crash the economy is making it easier for their wealthy donors to cheat on their taxes, and that should outrage anybody who believes in good government or basic economic fairness. The Congressional Budget Office confirmed today that the IRS cut Republicans demanded in this negotiation, which comes out of the funding Democrats passed in the Inflation Reduction Act, amounts to a handout of more than $40 billion to wealthy tax cheats. Speaker McCarthy has already declared that he’s committed to repealing the rest of that tax enforcement funding, which would bring the total giveaway to nearly $200 billion. I’m going to fight any effort to make that happen, and I’ll continue working to make sure the IRS has the resources it needs to crack down on wealthy tax cheats and provide a high level of customer service for everybody else.”
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